Blonde on Blonde

by

Bob Dylan

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What would you need to be to be the greatest album of all-time?

1.You'd need to have a classic opening salvo that sets the tone - and the quality - for what is to follow...

'Rainy Day Women' exudes a good-time feel with its Salvation Army band vibe and its party atmosphere with the whoops and hollers of the session musicians, the interjections of "Yeah!" and "Tell 'em, Bob!" and that harmonica crescendo. This track never fails to whip up the excitement. Especially when you know what is in store on the rest of the album...

'Pledging My Time' has a laid-back feel and a relaxed-sounding Dylan which then leads into 'Visions Of Johanna'. I can't think of a better start to an album.

2.You'd need to have at least one stand-out track that ranks with the very best ever written...

This album has two.

'Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands' was, as I'm sure everyone knows, the entirety of side 4 on this album's initial vinyl release and also the first track laid down by Dylan and his band of the finest Nashville session musicians. By the time it had reached its eighth minute the session men were looking at each other as if to say 'How long is this going to last? What is going on?' This is Dylan's beautifully controlled declaration of love to the woman who would become his wife. "With your mercury mouth in the missionary times/And your eyes like smoke and your prayers like rhymes..." and the question which clearly needs no answer : "Who among them do you think could resist you?" Dylan took some flack later for claiming to have stayed up for days in the Chelsea Hotel writing this for Sara Lowndes when it was easily established that he'd kept the band waiting in the studio through the night whilst he was writing in the basement downstairs before the recording. See, in particular, Lester Bangs' review of 'Desire. But what no one seems to have put forward is this : yes, maybe he did write in the studio but it's possible he had spent delirious days and nights writing the basis for the song which he then edited in the studio, honing the lines to perfection before recording it. That's my theory, anyway. For what it's worth.

'Visions Of Johanna'. This tale of thwarted idealism in love is possibly Dylan's finest moment. The music gives the voice of Dylan room to breathe as he contemplates the absolute unattainability of perfection in love compared to the ordinariness of the attainable everyday. " Louise, she's alright, she's just near..."

3.You'd need to have a bit of controversy. Well, maybe. Can't do any harm...

Leaving aside the drug-innuendo of 'Rainy Day Women', possibly shocking in its day but not any more, there is 'Just Like A Woman' where arguments still rage. Dylan ; misogynist or misunderstood? Well, clearly, it's not his nastiest lyric but that's hardly a defence. My own view is that it's not misoginistic; it's a lyric that seemingly goes to the heart of a person and would have made as much sense to read 'You fake like a man/You take like a man/But you break just like a little boy...'. It's the discrepancy between the inner fragility of the individual in contrast to their projected and, to Dylan at least, false self. Plus there's the poetry where Dylan lays himself on the line to the same person : "When we meet again/ Introduced as friends/Please don't let on that you knew me when/I was hungry and it was your world..."

4.You should perhaps have songs that aren't necessarily celebrated within the artist's canon but still leave you astounded and in awe whenever you hear them...

'One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later) is a case in point. The hammond organ swirls, those spiteful lyrics and great vocals from the man himself. This album is the best Dylan ever sounded. The voice is old-beyond-its-years and yet beautiful at the same time. And at least one word in each line is sung as if it's in italics. Genius.

5.You'd need to have the arrogance of the Gods...

From the iconic cover shot to the Lennon-baiting 'Fourth Time Around' the album projects this like nothing else. The dig at Lennon was playful : Dylan suggesting that as John had ripped him off for three earlier Beatles songs ('You've Got To Hide Your Love Away', 'I'm A Loser' and 'Norwegian Wood'), Dylan may as well write the fourth one for him there and then...The similarity to 'Norwegian Wood' is absolutely intentional.

6.You'd need to fit together perfectly, both artistically and stylistically...

Easy. Bob Dylan's musical vision is perfectly realised here.

What would you have to be to be the best album of all-time...

Well, you'd have to have lines like "the ghost of 'lectricity howls in the bones of her face...". You'd have to be "that thin, that wild mercury sound". And? Well, obviously, it's a wholly subjective thing. But you'd have to be an album to last forever, to constantly sound fresh and exciting, to provide more defining moments in music than any other...In short, you'd have to be 'Blonde On Blonde'. By Bob Dylan.

There is no denying that this is one of the greatest albums ever released in the history of popular music. The brilliant Sad Eyed Lady Of the Lowlands is worth the price of admission alone. I will not go into any detail with regards to the individual songs on this album, as others have said all that needs to be said and also much more eloquently than I ever could. The fault with this double disc lies not with the music but with the remastering. I do not have the luxury of owning SACD or 5.1 Surround Sound so I am unable to comment on these particular layers, but I can say that the CD layer is just awful. It sounds as if it has been recorded in a tin can. Be sure to have a pair of earplugs close at hand as those harmonica breaks are piercing! And where is Al Kooper's lovely organ work? It has been buried so far in the mix that it is barely audible on some tracks. Let the buyer beware!